iRobot's Roomba and Braava robotic vacuum cleaners have been cleaning the floors of owners' homes for a number of years, and now the company is moving outdoors. The Terra robot mower is designed to keep a garden's grass in check so you don't have to.
iRobot says that the Terra robot mower mows the lawn just like people do, trundling straight down, turning and mowing up a fresh line next to the original until the whole lawn has been given a hair cut.
Where some robot mowers currently on the market rely on boundary wires to be installed at borders and the like, so that the rolling cutter doesn't flatten flower beds, Terra makes use of iRobot's Imprint Smart Mapping technology and a new wireless comms system.
Instead of wire, users place standalone beacons around the garden before rolling Terra once around the space so that it can learn the layout. After that, the robot mower can be scheduled to cut the grass at a later time or set off immediately.
Running the iRobot Home app on a smartphone gives users even more control over Terra, including creating mowing schedules and setting the height of the cut.
And if Terra's built-in battery runs low mid-cut, it automatically returns to its charging base for a top up, setting off to resume its mowing task when it's juiced up.
iRobot is making the Terra available for sale in Germany later this year, while also launching a beta program in the US. Pricing is not available at this time.
Source: iRobot